Assessment of cardio function is vitally important in monitoring neonatal patients, burn or trauma patients, as well as sleep studies and other cases where a continuous measurement of the subject's cardiac pulse rate is required or otherwise desired. Cardiac pulse rate is often measured using an electrocardiogram (ECG) device which often requires adhesive patches, clips, straps, and the like, which may be uncomfortable to wear. The ability to monitor cardiac function by non-contact means is highly desirable in the healthcare industry. Measurements can be made at subject's comfort and will be suitable for long observation/monitoring periods and can provide a record of visual imagery of subjects. Although non-contact methods may not be able to provide details concerning cardiac electrical conduction that ECG offers, video-based methods offer abilities to detect pulsation for long term cardiac function monitoring in a non-contact, unobtrusive manner.
Accordingly, what is needed in this art is a system and method for estimating cardiac pulse rate from a video of a subject being monitored for cardiac function.